Article: "Blending Physical Therapy with Martial Arts"
Posted 3/31/2007 1:37pm [from Jun Akiyama]
This article entitled "Blending Physical Therapy with Martial Arts introduces us to "Leslie Russek, an associate professor of physical therapy at Clarkson University and a chief instructor at North Country Aikido" who uses aikido principles in physical therapy. She says, "For example, in physical therapy, when I am laying my hands on a person to stretch out a muscle, I have to be relaxed for them to relax. If I touch a person when I am tensed, they'll tend to be tensed. In Aikido, it's exactly the same way. The same physical skill and the same sense of connecting to a person from my center that is used in Aikido are used in physical therapy."
What are your thoughts on taking aikido principles to such fields as physical therapy?